


Get knocked down, get back up

by CatLovingArmour



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Sparring, They have a very odd friendship, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-01-06
Packaged: 2018-05-12 06:55:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5656906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatLovingArmour/pseuds/CatLovingArmour
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lavellan needs to learn how to disarm a shiled. But with Cullen being the one to try and teach him this, things were never going to end well for either of them.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>
  <i>Cassandra elbowed her way through the crowd gathered around the two men until she was stood in front of them, definitely not looking happy about the situation. Cents immediately sprung back up to his feet.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>“Cass! What, no, nothing’s going - ” he was cut of abruptly as Cullen kicked his legs out from underneath him, making Cents collapse on the ground once again.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>“What?” Cullen asked indignantly, as Cassandra shot him a look. “He was the one who jumped onto me.”</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>“I do not care who did what first,” she snapped before Cents could open his mouth to protest. “You are both grown adults and yet here you are fighting like children in the dirt.”<i></i></i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Get knocked down, get back up

**Author's Note:**

> Cents is my Inquisitor, and Yui and Francis belong to RainbowwBroker.
> 
> Some brief description of fighting and injury but nothing serious or overly graphic. Also hints towards Cassandra/Lavellan and Dorian/Trevelyan.

“Why do I even need to know this? I’ve gotten this far without it,” Cents complained as Cullen walked him over to the practice area. Cents was never one for practicing a skill that had already been drummed into him over years of experience, so he defiantly saw no point in practicing something he had never needed before. If it was so important then he would have picked it up by now. 

“Yes, and the amount of times you’ve almost gotten killed is somewhat startling.”

“You’re just being dramatic.”

“What about the time with the rage demon?”

“You’re going to have to narrow it down.”

“The one with the tree and the squirrels.”

“Did Sera tell you that? Or was it Dorian? It was Dorian wasn’t it?” 

“You need to learn how to disarm an opponent. What would you do if a warrior were to attack you?”

“Jump out of the way and stab him in the back.”

“And if you’re too injured to move?”

“Stab him in the throat.”

“And if you have no weapons?”

“Let Bull or Cassandra take him out.”

“And if they can’t get to you in time?”

“Let whichever mage or rouge with me take them out.”

Cullen had clearly become tired of the game as he sighed heavily in frustration. “Lavellan, you need to know this,” he paused for a moment before a small smirk crept onto his face. “Unless, of course, you feel as though you cannot grasp the concept, in which case I could try to explain it in simpler terms.” 

That got the desired reaction out of the elf. A cold glare, a small growl in the back of his throat and the knives being pulled from their place on his back. Cents had a short temper in the best of times, but it could be amplified by a few things. Two of which were unwanted authority and the implication that he was stupid. Thankfully, Cullen could provide both rather easily. 

“Shouldn’t you be wearing armour? I could stab you,” he said, looking from his metal daggers to Cullen’s wooden practice sword and shield and the outer layer of armour that the commander usually wore, which was now placed carefully on the ground. In truth, the only real reason Cullen had taken it off was because it was an unusually warm day.

Cullen looked from the daggers in his hands. “I somehow doubt it,” he said blandly, making Lavellan’s ear twitch slightly, a tick that he could never shake when he was starting to become very irritated. Good. Irritated meant that he would actually do something about it. Or try at least. “Now, are you going to stand there all day or are you going to try to disarm me?”

Cents didn’t need to be told twice before he quickly lunged towards Cullen. 

Cullen quickly side stepped and used Cents momentum to trip him up. “Try that again.”

Cents sighed heavily, rolling his shoulders back before spinning around and dove at him. His time getting hit in the face with the shield and then getting jabbed in the stomach with the handle of the sword. “Is that really all you’ve got?”

The elf sucked in a breath, before scowling at the man and blindly trying to attack him once more. It ended about as well for him, this time getting wakened on the top of the head with the wooded sword. “Come on, you can try harder than that.”

Cullen may have been getting a bit more of a kick out of this then he should have. He respected the Inquisitor and his decisions but that did not mean that there were not times where he just wanted to shake him. It had become clear upon their first conversation that Cents was not fond of Cullen, or any of his advisers for that matter. However, he quickly grew to close Josephine and even warmed up to Lilianna, seeing something of a kinship with someone who worked in shadows and secrets. Cullen, however, made no such development. They clashed on so many points and Cents seemed to almost revel in just plain annoying and teasing Cullen. So since Cullen had now been given an opportunity to get a little revenge on the Inquisitor, he saw no fault in that. 

“I had assumed this would have been at least a little bit of a challenge,” Cullen let out in a laugh. 

“I can do it!” Cents growled through gritted teeth as he pulled out one of the smoke bombs from his pouch and threw it to the ground, disappearing into the thick cloud of smoke that surrounded him and Cullen. Cullen slammed him shield into Cents’ body as the elf tried to attack his left side, causing him to fall to the ground with a heavy thud, both of his daggers going skidding across the dirt.

“Wha?” he crooked out in annoyed bewilderment, all the air having been knocked out of him. He stared up at Cullen as though he had just casted a spell rather then used his shield.

“I do know how you fight.” Cullen smirked at him. He may have been getting far too much enjoyment out of tormenting the Inquisitor but with how much Cents enjoyed annoying him, be believed that this was well overdue. “Are you even trying?”

The elf’s confused look morphed into a bitter expression once more as he clenched his fists and bared his teeth. 

“Commander, I have your reports,” called out a voice, as a solider, Jim, came through the small crowd that had gathered in vague interest over the practice session. “I’m… not interrupting, am I?”

“Nothing important,” Cullen said nonchalantly, as he turned his back to the elf in order to talk to his solider, placing the weapons on the ground as he did so.

That comment had apparently been the last straw for Cents. “That’s it!” he seethed. 

Not even bothering to pick up his daggers again, he has lunged at the human, using his entire weight, speed, and no short amount of surprise to knock Cullen down with him. He wasn’t even quite sure what to do now that he had the upper ground and so settled for simply trying to hit or kick the man as much as possible whilst he had him stunned. It didn’t last very long, as Cullen twisted himself around to grab hold of the elf’s wrists. “What are you -” he was cut off by a swift kick to his manhood. 

A hush fell over the courtyard, even people who previously hadn’t been interested in watching the two practice now had their full attention.

A few seconds passed before Cullen was finally able to say something. “Fine, you want to fight dirty?” he pulled back his right hand before slamming his fist squarely into the elf’s face. “Let’s fight dirty.”

A crowed almost immediately gathered around them, talking and cheering as they did so.

“Oh, now it’s getting good!” Varric laughed at the scuffle.

“I got five sovrins on the Commander,” Francis yelled over the crowd.

“Make that ten!” Sera yelled back from her roof, watching the scuffle with a gleeful look.

“My moneys on the Inquisitor, he’s scrappy,” Krem joined in.

That was a rather accurate description of the entire fight. There was no form to it, nor any reason, it mostly looked like a bar brawl without the alcohol. Either way, Cullen had almost a foot of height and 30 pounds of muscle over the elf, something he was more than willing to use to his advantage.

“You cannot physically win this!” Cullen told him, managing to pin Cents to the ground.

“I don’t care!” he spat back, kneeing the man hard in the stomach and slamming his forehead into Cullen’s nose, causing pain for the both of them.

Cullen was already deciding that this had gone on long enough, and so tried to grab Cents and hold him in a headlock to try and calm him down without any more injuries. His did not go over very well as Culled yelped out in surprised pain, before he managed to kick the smaller man of him and looked down at the wounded area. “Did you just bite me?” he asked in a mix of outrage and disbelief. He was actually starting to wish he had worn his armour for this.

Cents looked like he was about to lunge for him once again, but a loud shout of “What is going on here?” made him stop and look into the crowed, who’s loud shouts were dwindle into murmurs.

Cassandra was currently elbowing her way through the crowd gathered around the two men until she was stood in front of them, definitely not looking happy about the situation. Cents immediately sprung back up to his feet.

“Cass! What, no, nothing’s going - ” he was cut of abruptly as Cullen kicked his legs out from underneath him, making Cents collapse on the ground once again.

“What?” Cullen asked indignantly, as Cassandra shot him a look. “He was the one who jumped onto me.”

“I do not care who did what first,” she snapped before Cents could open his mouth to protest. “You are both grown adults and yet here you are fighting like children in the dirt.”

They both shared a sheepish look before standing back up to face the frustrated woman. Neither of them looked better off, both were sore and covered in dirt, Cents sporting a soon to be black eye and busted lip, and Cullen with a bleeding nose and a harsh looking bite mark on his arm. 

Cullen sighed heavily and decided to try and be the bigger man about the whole situation, as well as to appease Cassandra “I apologise for baiting you on purpose. And for punching you in the face.”

Cents stared at him for a second before pulling a face that look like he had swallowed a lemon. “Sorry about pushing you.”

Cullen glared at him. “You tackled me.”

Cents face scrunched up into an even deeper scowl. “Fine,” he all but spat out.

“And,” Cassandra pressed further, not in the least fazed by his bitter attitude. 

He shot her an almost pleading look before letting out a huff. “And the biting. And head-butting you.”

Cassandra nodded. “Good,” she said finitely, before grabbing hold of Cents by his upper arm and leading him away from the crowd. He didn’t put up any fight, psychically or verbally as he was steered towards the practice dummies she was often found near. 

“Alright, everyone, nothing to see here, get back to whatever it is you call work,” Varric called over everyone, waving everyone to go back to their usual business before turning to look Cullen up and down and pointing towards his bitten arm. “You might want to get that looked at by Princess. I like Magpie and all, but let’s face it, no one really knows where he’s been.”

 - 

“You got into a fight with him?” Yui asked, as she tended to the injury. The bite mark was mostly gone now, skin had not been broken so here would be no mark or infection from it., and thanks to her magic the bruise was mostly gone too. 

“He got into a fight with me,” Cullen protested, because he really wasn’t completely to blame for all of this. “I was trying to teach him how to protect himself better!”

“By slamming him into the ground?” she asked, easing her magic away from the mark. It wasn’t too bad, but it would probably be a little sore for a bit. Cullen looked at her in confusion. “Word travels fast.”

“Dorian?”

“Francis told him.”

“That makes sense.”

She gently kissed his arm. “All done.”

He paused before saying, “You know, that wasn’t the only place he hurt me.”

“Oh, really?” Yui asked, raising an eyebrow at him and trying to stop the smile from spreading on hier face. She wasn’t very good at that. 

Cullen nodded, very seriously. “Really.”

“And where else are you hurt?”

“Here,” he tapped the side of his nose. Yui leaned it close, slipping her hand behind his neck to tilt it at a better angle before placing a delicate kiss along the injured noes.

“Better?”

“Almost,” he said, as he gently cupped her face and pulled her into a deep kiss.

- 

Cullen was making his walk along the barracks that night when he heard the noises of swearing and pure frustration.

Cents was stood in front of the training dummies Cassandra often used, one of which had been equipped with a shield and sword. He was circling the thing, before lunging, aiming straight for the shield and trying to twist his daggers around to the straw arm holding it. Only for his own momentum and angle to cause him to slip and fall into an undignified heap on the ground. 

“Oh, come on!” he growled in frustration before picking himself up and walking towards one of his daggers that had fallen further away. “It can be this damn hard, just do it!” The elf picked up the fallen dagger before circling around the dummy once more. “Fucking commander, fucking shem, fucking Cullen!” he spat angrily, before kicking harshly at the wooden pole keeping it up. He didn’t knock it down or brake it in two, but the thing was defiantly in a harsh angle afterwards.

Cullen thought it best to leave before the elf noticed the true target for his anger.

 - 

Cassandra had dragged Cents out of Skyhold two day later, with Cole and Blackwall in tow, to hunt out some more shards they had found scattered over the Hinterlands months ago. It was probably best for everyone. Cents had been scowling and prowling around even more than usual, snapping at almost everyone who tried to talk to him. And Cullen had buried himself into even more work than usual to try to avoid said angry elf.

 - 

One week later saw Cents kicking open one of the doors to Cullen’s office.

“I wanna go again,” he announced as he strides in, paying no mind to the fact that he, as always, had not closed the door behind him. Cullen had not even been told he had returned to Skyhold, though judging from his outfit he may very well have just walked through the gate. His lip had healed, though still looked sore, and the black eye had turned more yellow than any other colour. 

“Go where?” Cullen asked. The Hinterlands couldn’t be that interesting.

“Training. The disarming thing, come on,” he said, making a flapping hand gesture towards the wide open door. 

“I have work to do,” he said quickly, having no desire to have a repeat of last time.

His face fell. “Oh, come on, you’re always working. Seriously, I know how to swipe that smug look of your face now, so come on. I promise I won’t bite you this time, alright?”

Cullen was so tempted to say no. That he couldn’t be dragged away from his work right now, that he promised Yui he’d have lunch with her, that he needed to train the troops, anything would have worked. But he knew how stubborn Cents could be and he knew the look in his eye when he wasn’t going to let something go. 

“I suppose I could spare a little time,” he said, deciding that if he had figured it out then it would pacify him and he would have learned an important skill, and if not then it was better to simply get what he can only describe as a full blown tantrum over with as quickly as possible.

“Good!” Cents rounded the desk before placing his hands on Cullen’s back and pushed him towards the door. Cullen was fairly certain that if he simply stood still the elf wouldn’t be able to budge him, but be went along with it anyway. 

“So, what makes you think you can do this now?” he asked breezily, as he was pushed out of his office.

“I was practicing,” Cents said, sounding proud of that fact. He moved in front of Cullen, leading him down to a clear area of the courtyard. “See, Cole and me fight mostly the same, Cass and Blackwall fight with a sword and shield. So put that together and I figured some stuff out.”

Cullen hummed in agreement. That did make sense, and he was actually rather interested to see what he had come up with. Cullen had always seen combat as very adaptive, with each fighter bring in new variables. Cents’ fighting style was far different to his own or the soldiers he trained. It was because of that that he had not given Cents any instructions the first time rather than to disarm his shield. It was Cents who would have to figure it out in a fight, so he would have to come up with something in practice too.

On his first try he ended up flat on his back once more. Cullen paused, wondering if this would send Cents of into another angry spiral. But he simply got back onto his feet, positioned hi stance and took a deep breath before trying again. This repeated four times, each making Cullen more on edge of the elf losing his temper.

Finally, he lunged forward, higher than he had before, only to slip under the risen shield at the last minute. Cents then trapped his arm with one of his own, used the handle of his other dagger to dig into the joint of Cullen’s elbow, ending a spasm of pain down his arm, and kicking out his leg to stop the arm holding the sword. The sudden spasm caused Cullen to lose his grip of the shield and it fell to the ground as Cents released his hold and stepped back.  
Cents stood there, panning heavily and staring almost in disbelief at the wooden sword that laid on the ground before looking up at Cullen. There was something in his expression that Cullen couldn’t quite place, as though he was waiting for something.

Cullen smiled and nodded. “Not bad.”

He supposed that it must have been the right thing to say as a huge grin spread over Cents’ face and he raised his daggers in the air, letting out a loud, happy whooping noise. “I told you I could do it!” he announced to Cullen, all but jumping up and down on the spot.

“That you did,” Cullen nodded, wondering if that had been the problem the whole time, just trying to prove a point to him. “Now just do that about a hundred times and you might be able to pull it off against someone who’s actually trying to hurt you.”

“Little victories, Cullen. We’ve talked out this,” Cents said, rolling his eyes at the commander but the smile never disappearing from his face. “Now, are you going to stand there all day or are you going to pick up your sword again?”


End file.
